Nokia XL: Nokia unveils another Android device

Nokia surprised us at Mobile World Congress with the announcement of a trio of phones running the Android-based Nokia X Software Platform, the Nokia X and Nokia X+, and the bigger Nokia XL.

The largest of the three phones is also the most specced-out, with both front and rear-facing cameras and a larger battery.

One might expect a phone of phablet proportions with a name like XL, but this larger version of the Nokia X line sports a 5-inch screen, which is quite reasonable by today's standards. While the phone is wider than the 4-inch Nokia X and X+ (it measures 141.3 by 77.7 by 10.8mm), I could just about operate it one-handed, though I did have to stretch a bit to punch certain screen controls.

I held a rich orange XL in my hands, but it also comes in cyan, yellow, green, black, and white. They all share a soft-touch coating that makes the handset feel nicely grippable and smooth. It also has the added benefit of deflecting smudges. Squarer corners and sides characterize the phone's shape, which is pleasantly blocky.

The Nokia XL is on the thicker side and feels heavy and solid in the hand, weighing 190g. Nokia does a great job in keeping buttons rising high above the surface of the phone. True to form, the volume rocker and power/lock buttons are easy to find without looking and responsive without seeming to give too quickly.

Screen resolution is on the lower side for the XL's 5-inch display, at 800x480 pixels. Compare this to the 1,920x1,080 HD resolutions you often see on premium smartphones. High resolution images and videos won't look as crisp on this phone, but the large tiles and icons of its custom operating system scale just fine.

Core features
You won't get as much juice out of the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core processor, but the lower-powered phone might not be as resource-hungry. The device I had in hand wasn't connecting to Wi-Fi and also SIM-less, so it wasn't possible to tell how the phone handles more intensive processes, like streaming video and playing games.

There's a 5-megapixel camera on the rear, equipped with auto-focus and flash, and a 2-megapixel camera on the front.

You'll find slightly more RAM on this phone than the Nokia X and X+, 768MB, but it also has the same 4GB allotment of on-board storage, with an option to expand up to 32GB.

A 2,000mAh battery promises up to 13 hours of talk time over 3G, and there will be dual-SIM options in addition to the single SIM.